


Our Forthright Freedom

by ForgetMeNotAuthor



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: AOT Week, Angst, Armin Arlert Finds the Ocean, Eren Yeager Sees The Ocean, Light Angst, M/M, Multi, Other, POV Armin Arlert, POV First Person, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan Anime Spoilers, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan Manga Spoilers, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:41:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29093661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForgetMeNotAuthor/pseuds/ForgetMeNotAuthor
Summary: On The Other Side Of the Wall from Armin's perspective. Seeing the ocean for the first time ever and feeling... happy.'Even after all the horrors Paradis placed on our shoulders, I could smile.I could even feel those same tears of overwhelming emotion welling up inside me. Seeing my friends enjoying the world in front of us brought bliss to my heart I only knew reading about the ocean.Despite the coolness of the wind, the even colder water, I felt warm inside.'
Relationships: Armin Arlert/Eren Yeager, Mikasa Ackerman & Armin Arlert & Eren Yeager
Kudos: 13





	Our Forthright Freedom

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! Thank you for reading this!
> 
> AoT Season 3 Episode 22 spoilers - read at your own discretion. 
> 
> I thought that it would be interesting and (angsty) fun to write the scene where the surviving members see the ocean for the first time. I'm not sure if this has been done before but here's my take on how it would happen. I just wanted to insert some happy vibes into Armin before the downfall that continues afterwards. Is that too much for my lil' author heart to ask?!

_“I’m leaving it all with Eren. My dream. My life. Everything. I have nothing else left to lose. I’m sure Eren will be able to reach the ocean. He’ll have to… see it for both of us.”_

I was willing to give my life for others to survive that day. Why now, of all times, did I remember it? Was it the gradual change of smell in the air, the dryness from the sandy-snowfields dissipating into fresh sensations that loitered on the tongue? A strange hollering of birds calling crowded the air, different from the pleasant chirps of home - but it was one more pleasant reminder.

The further away from home, the closer our goal. 

The ocean, _‘a salt lake so big, that no merchant could deplete it. Not even in a lifetime.’_

Inching closer and closer, like dragging our arms through the sand, we saw the wall Eren described to us. More walls, so far out; I had to wonder if they were made of titans too? Indents, scratching and weathering of a hundred years lay waste on the stone taller than us - enough to stop 20-metre titans at least. Dividers hinted at history’s truth before us. A lump formed in my throat and with shaking hands, I gripped the horse’s reins tighter. 

We had already gotten this far. Mikasa, Eren, Commander Hanji, Jean, Sasha, Connie, Captain Levi and I went through so much to see the natural beauty of the world we had yet to adventure to. It was even harder to get up the unstable sand to reach the skyline and peer to see...

… water. Flowing, swooshing water as far as the eye could see. Pulling back from the land to leave its mark in darkened sand before returning in waves with skies so blue they hardly looked real. They covered the land above us, like an expensive shade of royal gems gleaming in the sunlight. 

A new type of clean breeze filled my lungs. Not like the one on top of the wall, the overpowering feeling that almost makes you fall. Nor like the adrenaline-filled flying we partook with every fight to get here, where we stood today. 

Curiously, the sand was different on the shore than those of the miles before the wall. There must be an abundance beneath the ocean, formed by… formed by collision, maybe? Who knew for sure! All I knew was that my feet pressed into the soft sensation was like heaven on earth. Nothing else mattered now. Even after all the horrors, Paradis placed on our shoulders, I could smile. 

I could even feel those same tears of overwhelming emotion welling up inside me. Seeing my friends enjoying the world in front of us brought bliss to my heart I only knew reading about the ocean.

Despite the coolness of the wind, the even colder water, I felt warm inside. 

Strange sensations of things brushing my ankles with the drag of the crest tickled slightly and I was brought the gift of somethings shell - pure white, with nubs and nobbles decorating it’s outside that curved into a horn shape. In my hands, it felt like no material I had touched before - fragile as bone yet solid as a rock, swallowing water into what I could only imagine being the home of some creature we didn’t know yet. 

“I told you, Eren, a salt lake so big that merchants could spend their whole lives and still not get all the salt,” the fluttering excitement in my voice couldn’t be contained, “the stuff I talked about

wasn't wrong after all!” The biggest gamble I had taken in life was believing in this one dream. 

Finally, it settled in that this was our reality. 

“Look, Eren - on the other side of the wall-”  
  
“There’s a sea.”

A long drink of silence filled us. The undulation of the waves and the distant exchange of our companions covered it for a while. 

“On the other side of the sea… is freedom. That's what I always believed. But I was wrong. On the other side of the sea...are enemies,” Erens voice was consumed by the swelling weariness that ate him alive these days. No longer did it sound like Eren. At least, not completely. 

Listening to everything Eren said now placed the pit in my stomach back to where it belonged. As far as I could see, the ocean was a blanket for the horizon. Where the two shades of blue met there was something more that my best friend could see and I couldn’t. The enemy. People of who we didn’t know about other than the inscriptions from Doctor Jaeger and the memories Eren recited to us.

The ocean must see so much of the world, constantly moving how it was. It connected the world’s systems we were a part of. If we peered into the ocean, I wonder if we’d find the truth always changing before our eyes. 

I thought I could be as free as the ocean waves now I was here. 

_“If we kill all our enemies over there...will we finally... be free?”_


End file.
